International Journal of PharmTech Research

CODEN (USA): IJPRIF ISSN : 0974-4304

Vol. 3, No.1, pp 442-448, Jan-Mar 2011
Role of Nutraceuticals in Health Promotion
Swati Chaturvedi*, P. K. Sharma,Vipin Kumar Garg, Mayank Bansal
Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Meerut Institute of Engineering and
Technology, NH-58, Baghpat Bypass Crossing, Delhi-Haridwar Highway,
Meerut-250005 (UP),India
*Corres.author:swatichaturvedi99@yahoo.com, Mob. No.:- 91-9953957957
Abstract: Nutraceuticals are food product that provides health as well as medical benefits; including the prevention
and treatment of disease. Few nutraceuticals are being used as pharmaceutical and a number of other being used and
purchased by the general public as self-medication. Such products may range from dietary supplements to genetically
engineered foods, herbal products and processed foods. Clinical research on nutraceutical product is going on for
integrating and assessing information. The main aim of this article is to explore and discuss that a number of
nutraceuticals can actually treat or prevent underlying causes of disease. This article outlines nutraceuticals with their
therapeutic applications, adverse effects and interaction.
Keywords: Nutraceuticals, functional food, dietary supplement, health promoters.
INTRODUCTION
The term Nutraceutical was first coined by Dr.
Stephen L. Defelice as a product isolated or
purified from foods and sold in medicinal forms.
They have physiological benefit
1
Nutraceutical is a combination of 2 words
1. Nutrition and
2. Pharmaceutical.
Nutraceuticals are food product that provides health as
well as medical benefits; including the prevention and
treatment of disease. Phytochemicals and antioxidants
are two specific types of nutraceuticals. Research has
proved that foods with phytochemicals may help to
provide protection from diseases such as cancer,
diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, e.g.
carotenoids found in carrots. Antioxidants may be
helpful in avoiding chronic diseases, by preventing
oxidative damage in our body.
2
Over the last 20 years,
numbers of Nutraceuticals are available for self-
medication or for sale.
3
There has been a boom in sale of Nutraceutical
because of -
1. Adverse effects of pharmaceuticals
2. Increased tendency of patients for self-medication
3. Aging population e.g. - arthritis
Figure 1-Demand of Nutraceuticals
Fig 1.
4
Swati Chaturvedi et al /Int.J. PharmTech Res.2011,3(1) 443
Fig 2.
CLASSIFICATION OF NUTRACEUTICALS-
Nutraceutical is a term used to describe product
obtained from food sources that provides extra health
benefits as well as basic nutritional value present in
food. There are different types of products that comes
under the class of nutraceuticals.
5
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: A dietary supplement
is a product that contains nutrients derived from food
products .The "dietary ingredients" present in these
products are: metabolites, vitamins, minerals, vitamins,
herbs, and amino acids.
FUNCTIONAL FOODS: Functional foods are
designed foods which provide enriched foods close to
their natural state to consumer, rather than
manufactured dietary supplements in liquid or capsule
form. A process of making enriched food is called
Nutrification. Functional foods provide required
amount of vitamins, fat, carbohydrate, amino acid etc
to body.Established requirement that functional food
should possess are-
(1) they should be in their naturally-occurring form,
(2) they should be an essential part of our daily diet,
(3) should regulate a biological process in hopes of
preventing or controlling disease.
6
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUTRACEUTICALS,
FOOD AND MEDICINE-
Figure 2 shows the relationship between nutra -
ceuticals, food and medicine.
Pharmaceuticals are usually classified as medicines by
law.
1. Herbal remedies may be classed as medicines
because of their perceived risk with self-
medication e.g.-Digitalis
2. Functional food are closely related to
nutraceuticals consumed as a part of normal diet,
e.g. Carotenoid
3. Vitamins are classed as medicine but are freely
available.
4
EXAMPLES OF NUTRACEUTICALS CURRENTLY
AVAILABLE IN MARKET-
1. FORTIFIED CEREALS-various cereals contain
vitamins and minerals.
2. VITAMIN AND MINERAL SUPPLEMENTS-
Vitamin A (Beta- Carotene),
3. ADDITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS-supplements
other than vitamin and minerals which have
beneficial effect on health for example-cod liver
oil, primrose oil, glucosamine, garlic etc.
4. ENERGY DRINKS AND TABLETS-
Tropicana,Minute Maid Pulp,Frooti
5. FOODS TO REDUCE CHOLESTEROL
LEVELS-Abcor by Nutri-pharma, claimed to
reduce cholesterol by 15-20% in 4 months.
6. PROTEIN POWDER -
Protinex(Dumex),GRD(Zydus), B.Protein
(British Biologicals)
7. PRO-BIOTICS-Bacteria containing foods that
believed to improved health. For example-
YAKULT; contains 6.5 million lactobacillus
casei shirota, which is thought to improve gut
health.
4, 5
8. SPORTS PRODUCTS- Glucon-D (Heinz),
Glucose D (Dabur)
SOURCE, MANUFACTURE AND ANALYSIS
OF MAJOR NUTRACEUTICALS-
Most of nutraceuticals are natural products and
obtained from plants and animals.
Example-lycopene extracted from plant,
carnitine,creatine and carotenoids produced by
fermentation for example-coenzyme Q10 and S-
adenosyl glycoside
1. A number of nutraceuticals have GRAS status as
defined by FDA, and increasingly manufacturers
gain GRAS certification for product.A list of
GRAS is published on the internet.
2. Nutraceuticals used same analytical procedure
for identification and quantification as
pharmaceuticals.
3
PHARMACEUTICALS NUTRACEUTICALS HERBAL REMEDIES
FUNCTIONAL FOOD VITAMINS
Swati Chaturvedi et al /Int.J. PharmTech Res.2011,3(1) 444
Table-1 Sources of Nutraceuticals
Nutraceuticals Source
Extraction/fermentation/
manufacturer
Analytical
technique
Glucosamine.
8,3
Bovine trachea,
shellfish
Chitin acid hydrolysis, Fish shell
enzymes hydrolysis
HPlc
Methylesulfonylmethane
9
,3
Meat, milk Peroxide oxidation of DMSO gc
Coenzyme Q10
10,3
Common food
NaOH digest of hearts/livers after
H2S treatment, fermentation
HPLC-Electro-
chemical detector
Carnitine
11,3
Heart, skeletal
muscles
Chiral synthesis from
butyrolactone
Chiral HPLC
Flax lignans
12,3
Linum
usitatissimum
Supercritical extraction co2 CCC
Resveratrol
13,3
Red
wine,polygonum,ca
psidatum root
Mid polarity solvent extraction
CE,GC-
MS,ELISA
Grape seed
14,3
Vitis vinifera Water/ethanol extraction
Supercritical
extraction
Lycopene
15,3
Foods including
tomato, green algae
Tamato extraction,chemical
symthesis
HPLC
METABOLISM, BIOAVAILABILITY AND
PHARMACOKINETICS OF NUTRACEUTICALS-
METABOLISM DATA-
Metabolites play very important role in activity of
particular Nutraceutical. List of nutraceuticals and
their metabolites is given in table 2.
Dietary level have impact on physiological level
.e.g. except for food containing Q10,Carnitine,soy
there is little chance of dietary supplement
increasing physiological level.
Some Nutraceutical do not show physiological
level but consumption with other specific food
e.g.-lycopene, tea or soy, increased physiological
level.
Table-2 Metabolism data of Nutraceuticals
Nutraceuticals Physiological
Level
Dietary Level Metabolite
Glucosamine
8,16
- - Glucosaminic acid
Methylsulfonyl-
methane
9
4mg/person minimal Methionine
Methylsulfonyl-
methane
9
4mg/person minimal Coenzyme Q9
Coenzyme Q10
10
0.5micro gm/ml 3-5mg/day 6-(5,8,6)carboxylated
derivatives
Coenzyme Q10 0.5micro gm/ml 3-5mg/day 6-hydroxymelatonin
Carnitine
11
9mg/L 3-97mg/100gm meat acetylcarnitine
Carnitine 9mg/L 3-97mg/100gm meat Butyrobetaine
Flax lignans
12
Diet dependent Diet dependent SDG-enterolactone
Resveratrol
13
- 0.1-2.3 mg/L Piceartanol
Resveratrol - 0.1-2.3 mg/L Piceartanol plus another tetra
hydroxystilbene
Resveratrol - 0.1-2.3 mg/L dihydroresveratrol
Grape seed
14
- - Catechin/proanthrocyanidin
metabolites
Lycopene - 2-5 mg/day 5,6 dihydroxy 5,6
dihydrolycopine
Lycopene - - Lycopene epoxide
Soy isoflavones - 15-20mg/day 18-demethylated
Swati Chaturvedi et al /Int.J. PharmTech Res.2011,3(1) 445
BIOAVILABILITY DATA- Bioavailability study of number of nutraceuticals is given in table3
Table -3 Bioavailability data of Nutraceutical
Nutraceutical Dose Bioavailability Increased serum level
Glucosamine
16
7.5gm
26%,44% incorporation in
to globulin
-
Co-enzyme Q 10 30 mg - 3.5% increase in serum level at 6 hours
Co-enzyme Q 10 30 mg - 2.7-6 times normal level
Carnitine 2gm/12 hr 14-16 % -
Carnitine 0.5-0.6 gm 14-18 % 43%
Resveratrol 50gm/Kg 38% -
PHARMACOKINETIC DATA-
It is important to know about optimum dosage levels and frequency of administration of nutraceutical.the major
pharmacokinetic parameter given in table 4
Table-4 Pharmacokinetic data of Nutraceutical
12
Nutraceutical No of dose Dose Cmax t1/2 AUC
Glucosamine 8 beagles 1500 mg 12.7 g/ml 1.52 17.8g.hr/ml
Co-enzyme Q 9 180mg 1.03g/ml - 57.67g.hr/ml
Caritine 15 2gmevery 12 hr 12.4 g/ml 0.79 377Pg.hr/ml
Flax lignans 12 0.9 gm/kg - 4.4 280g.hr/ml
NUTRACEUTICAL AND HEALTH
1. JOINT DISEASE
Joint diseases affect people of all ages mainly the
elderly. Main joint diseases are:-
Osteoarthritis- Degenerative damage and loss of
the articular cartilage of the joint due to loss of
protein substance between the bones of joints.
Rheumatoid Arthritis- Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
is a chronic, inflammatory disorder that may affect
many an organs nd tissues but principally affect
joints.In this condition inflamatory synovitis
produced that causes distruction of articular
cartilage.
Nutraceutical use-
A-Glucosamine and Chondroitin-
Glucosamine is a precursor to a molecule called a
glycosaminoglycan-this
molecule is used in the formation and repair of
cartilage.
19
Source-bovine or calf cartilage
Glucosamine sulphate in several European
countries used as first line of treatment for
arthritis. There side effects and contraindications
are less but diabetics need to be careful as
glucosamine might have an effect on insulin
resistance. Glucosamine sulphate stimulates the
production of hyaluronic acid in joint fluid.
Hyaluronic acid relieves pain and improves
mobility by repairing damaged cartilage. In vitro
experiment of Glucosamine has shown a dose
dependent increase in proteoglycan after
administering it.
20

It is marketed usually as hydrochloride or sulfate

salt.Both compound have anti
inflammatory effects.Combination of Glucosamine
and chondrotin are available.
19

Chondroitin is the most abundant

glycosaminoglycan in cartilage and is responsible
for the resiliency of cartilage.
19,21
B -Methylsulfonyl Methane-
Methylsulfonyl Methane (MSM) is sold as nutritional
and dietary supplement often used in combination
with glucosamine and chondroitin for helping to treat
or prevent.
22
MSM is the oxidized form of dimethyl sulfoxied; a
natural organic form of sulfur. Both this compound
used for pain and inflammation.MSM has advantage
over DSMO as it is odourless and doses not cause
skin irritation. MSM provide source of sulfur for the
formation of the cartilage matrix or the antioxidant
system.
3
2. CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE
Cardiovascular disease, affect the heart and
circulatory system. In cardiac heart disease,
atherosclerotic plaques form on the inner surface of
arteries, which narrow the lumen and reduced the
blood flow.
There are many Nutraceutical which are beneficial in
the prevention or symptom reduction of CHD. For
example - soy protein, isoflavonoid and flax lignan.
Swati Chaturvedi et al /Int.J. PharmTech Res.2011,3(1) 446
A-Black and Green Tea-
Tea contains catechin derivative, amino acid theanine
(shown reduced in blood pressure in hypertensive rats.
Black and green tea both show equal activity in total
plasma antioxidant status after single dose. But some
study show green tea to be more effective than black.
Tea polyphenols have anti-inflammatory,
antithrombotic and antiplatelet properties and effective
in lowering risk of developing CHD and MI.
3
B- Soy-In 1999, FDA approved permission for
manufacturing of soy foods. At least 25 gm
administration of soy protein per day reduced risk to
developing CHD.
C-Flaxseed and Fish Oil- is also very beneficial in
cardiovascular heart disease. Flax seed contain lignans
and fiber which involve in cardiac protection.
Table-5- Nutraceutical used in various diseases
3
Disease Nutraceuticals
Eye health Lutein and Zeaxanthin
Mental health Phosphatidylserine
Docosahexaenoic
Soy isoflavones
Sleep
enhancement
Melatonin
Cancer
prevention
Tea,Lycopene,flaxseed,coenzyme
Q10
Bone health Melatonin,L-carnitine
Skin health Tea, soy isoflavones,coenzyme
Q10,Glucosamine,melatonin
Oral health Pycnogenol,coenzyme Q10
EFFECTIVENESS AND SAFETY-
REGULATION-
Nutraceutical products also required same level of
scrutiny and regulation as "dietary supplements".
Companies which involved in nutraceuticals
production invest more on scientific research to
substantiate their manufacturing standards, products by
keeping the view in mind consumer benefits and
differentiate their products from "dietary
supplements". Now a day many international
companies move within the industry, professional
organizations, academia, and health regulatory
agencies to add specific legal and scientific criterion to
the definition and standards for nutraceuticals.
23, 24
BIOAVAILABILITY-
Bioavailability is "absorption rate" of a supplement
product. In development of effective nutraceutical
products bioavilability play important role. The
bioavailability of substance which is in natural state
will be more as comparison manufactured product.
SAFETY AND EFFICACY-
Nutraceuticals hold great potential, as an alternative to
substance obtained by plant. Yet, some time they also
cause haemful effect as seen with ephedrine, a widely
used botanical ingredient in weight-loss products..Now
a days peoples are more conscious about there health
and these products offer the promised health
benefits.But danger is associated with some product
due to lake of solid information about intraction and
side effect..
25
LABELING AND HEALTH CLAIMS-
Proper labeling and health claims are very important
for nutraceutical products because they alert
consumers. Food and food substances can qualify for
health claims only if they meet FDA requirements.
The following are the FDA-approved health claims
showing a positive relationship between a certain
compound and reduced risk of specific disease(s):
Potassium High blood pressure and stroke
Plant sterol and plant stanol esters Coronary heart disease
Soy protein Coronary heart disease
Calcium Osteoporosis
Fiber-containing grain products, fruits and
vegetables
Cancer
Folic acid Neural tube birth defects
Dietary soluble fiber, such as that found in whole
oats and psyllium seed husk
Coronary heart disease
Dietary sugar alcohol Dental caries (cavities)
Swati Chaturvedi et al /Int.J. PharmTech Res.2011,3(1) 447
The remaining three FDA-approved health claims are
based on diets low in negative nutrients in food,
such as sodium. These health claims shows a
relationship between certain compounds and an
increased risk of disease(s):
Health claims are among the various types of claims
allowed in food labeling. They show a relationship
between a nutrient (and other substances in a food) and
a disease or health-related condition.
CONCLUSION-
Nutraceutical is growing health care industry in India.
Nutraceuticals is playing important role in
developments of future therapeutics but it depends on
control of purity, efficacy and safety. Nutraceutical
products are used in prevention of disease not in cure
of disease. Nutraceutical Products is collaborative
research effort of pharma, food and chemistry.As
healthcare industry is growing in India, growth of
nutraceutical is also increase because people want treat
their desease by improving their health with the help of
Fast Moving Healthcare Goods. India is significant
Player because it has extensive markets and facilities
like rich bio-diversity, world-class R & D facilities,
resources, qualified human, and varied raw materials -
aspects that provides edge our country. Now
nutraceutical a day may keep the doctor away
replace the old proverb an apple a day will keep the
doctor away Consumers are turning massively to food
supplements to improve well being where
pharmaceuticals fail.
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